Effect of single-dose injection of vitamin D on immune cytokines in ulcerative colitis patients: a randomized placebo-controlled trial.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, published as a randomized controlled trial.

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of vitamin D on the serum levels of immune cytokines in UC patients.

Why It Was Studied

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic recurrent inflammation of the colon.

It has been proposed that the UC pathogenesis may be related to vitamin D deficiency and/or vitamin D administration in UC patients may have an ameliorating effect on the intestinal inflammation.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are teenagers, young adults, adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group a baseline to be compared against.

Three months later serum levels of IL-4, IL-10, IL-12p70, IFN-γ, and TNF-α were measured.

What Was Measured

It has been proposed that the UC pathogenesis may be related to vitamin D deficiency and/or vitamin D administration in UC patients may have an ameliorating effect on the intestinal inflammation.

Two group variables were compared using independent t-test and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA).

PubMed files the paper under topics including Colitis, Ulcerative, Cytokines, Serum, Th1 Cells and Vitamin D.

Author keywords: immunity, inflammation, interleukin and ulcerative colitis.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

The publication is from 2019 (APMIS : acta pathologica, microbiologica, et immunologica Scandinavica), a journal based in Denmark.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.